Quicklinks

Our learning this week

Week beginning 15th July

The children were fabulous in their performances this week. They had practiced and i think did themselves proud. It's not easy getting up in front of all the parents and singing no matter how much we practice. It was a sad week for us too as a new team this was our first Trinity class , it has been great getting to know your children and being part of their learning journey. We will miss them all. It's been a week of thinking about change and helping prepare them for school. Talking through how children are feeling, what do they like about their new class and what things are the same as Meadow class.

Next week will be about enjoying our last few days with children, we have parties planned to celebrate the end of term. We wish all the best to the children moving on to Reception. All chidren returning in September we have a drop in session on Friday 6th September 9-11 so they can familiarise themselves with us and the classroom and then they start back on Monday 9th September for normal sessions.

Week beginning 8th July

What a messy week, mixing, transporting and filling seemed to spark some great role play ideas. We saw an Ice cream shop, café, fishing boats and so much more. The children shared ideas, listened to each other and had fun in their learning.

We have been practicing for our end of term celebration, keep up the practice at home too. We have been focusing on supporting listening and attention skills and revisiting some activities we did in the Autumn term. The children are so excited as the end term is fast approaching and visiting their new classes has given them an idea of what to expect in September.

Next week we will focus on;

- Supporting listening and attention skills.

- Exploring numbers 1-10 - what do we know about these numbers.

- Recapping the sounds we have explored an linking the sound and letters.

Week beginning 1st July

What a fun week we have had in the sunshine. The children enjoyed our ZooLab visit, they met Gail the snail, Moose the Rat, Queen the bearded dragon and Shelia the Tarantula spider. It was interesting to see how all animals have five common needs of food, water, specialist care when ill, activity and somewhere suitable to sleep. The children were a little disappointed that there was no snake or monkey!

We started the week by exploring hand strength through squeezing different objects such as fruit and sponges in our squeezing station. Water has been a big focus this week with us mixing, pouring and transporting it around the outdoor classroom. The hot weather inspired some ice cream role play and Mrs Clarke introduced Ice cream playdough.

We have been practicing for our end of term show and invites have gone out this week, if you have not received one please speak to Mrs Clarke. They will take place on Wednesday 17th July at 2.30pm and Thursday 18th July at 11am.

Next week we will focus on;

Exploring number 6 and making a number story with everything we know about 6.

Introducing the sound /n/

Introducing more hand strength activities to support children with grip and writing.

School transitions.

Week beginning 24th June

We have been making the most of our outdoor area as the lovely weather has finely arrived. This week we explored making our own biscuits by following a recipe and then exploring different flavours that we could add. Some of the children didn't like the taste if their biscuit once they had been baked but this was more about the process for them and getting them to think about flavours and what they like.

We have explored Number 4 and made a story about it this week, we thought of all things we know about four. we had ideas such as dogs have four legs, some children were 4 and some would be 4 on their birthday to sums to make 4. Mrs Clarke provided the children with counting resources and number lines to prove their ideas such as 2 and 2 makes 4, 5 is one more than 4 and that 14 and 24 have a four in them. Some really good thinking so next week we will make a story about 5.

We have explored the sound /p/ and revisited our other sounds this week. We have challenged the children to sort objects into the sounds they can hear.

We challenged the children to pick bottle tops out of water with straws this week to help with hand strength and coordination. We also introduced the ball challenge where they needed to get balls out of the water with their feet to support their gross motor control.

The end of term celebration dates have been altered and invites will go out next week. The dates are Wednesday 17th July 2.30pm and Thursday 18th July 11am.

Next week we will focus on;

Number story for Number 5 - what do we know?

Sound of the week /i/

Change - going to school, how do we feel and what do we want to know.

Building hand strength we will have lots of activities around squeezing.

Week beginning 17th June

We welcome Mrs Norris to the team. Following on from an interest in space last week we explored space and aliens this week which fitted in with our Mathsfest on Tuesday.

Children used boxes as space rockets to blast off, we had some children doing countdowns from 10 to blast off. They visited stars, the moon, planets and the sun as it is cold here. They showed good knowledge as they said they would stay in their rockets as the sun would burn them. We introduced Alien love underpants, the children explored making their own patterns on pants and we practiced subitising by matching the spotty aliens to their numbered pants.

This week we explored the sound/t/ and thought of words or friends names that began with this sound. We learnt the jolly phonics sounds and later in the week we practiced listening for the sounds we know and matching them with our sound flags.

Pouring, mixing, filling and emptying seem to be a real interest for the children so we will use this to explore different concepts next week such as measuring.

We have begun practicing songs for our end of term event. I will put he links below if you would like to help your child practice at home. Invites will be coming home next week.

Week beginning 10th June

We started the week with a fantastic production from Dragonbird theatre. The children were really engaged and enjoyed The owl and the pussycat.

We found some bones this week the children thought a skeleton had bought them so we discussed about skeletons being in our bodies and they don't walk around without skin. This gave the children a lot of questions. We also looked at some baby photos of our friends and Mrs Clarke, we looked at how we have changed and what was different. We will continue to explore this next week.

One of our friends bought in some items about space and it sparked an interest in planets, rockets and space. Next week we will introduce this more and see where the children take their learning adventure. This week we said goodbye to Miss Watling, she has been supply staff since January when Mrs Warner joined the admin team. She has been a great asset to our team and the children will miss her. We welcome Rebecca Norris on Monday as a nursery assistant and we will be helping her to settle in ready for September. Mrs Clarke will key work Miss Watling's key children until the end of term as the children know her well and she knows the children.

Next week we will focus on;

Introducing the sound of the week, "t."

Revisiting Number 3.

It's Maths fest on Tuesday but we will have a heavy focus on Maths all week supporting children with their Maths next steps and having maths everywhere in our continuous provision.

We will explore Whatever Next and think about what we might see if we went to space.

Week beginning 3rd June

We hope you all enjoyed your half term break, it sounds like it was a very busy week for some of our children.

This week we have been exploring the body and what is it our body. How does it work? What do our bones do? The children have shared some great thinking and have shared ideas with teachers and peers. We will continue with this next week and will introduce a box of bones.

The children enjoy hide and seek so this week we had a number hunt 1-20 for the children, they really enjoyed trying to find them and name them. We saw so much progress with children being able to recognise and name numbers past 5. Some children even added more numbers to their hunt. Following on from this we also hide pictures of items that began with our sound of the week "s." The children are showing a good awareness of sound and are identifying words they can hear this sound. Next week we will introduce the sound "a."

We have the production of The Owl and the pussycat on Monday, please arrive on time for your sessions.

Next week we will focus on;

recapping number of the week 2.

introduce sound of the week "a."

Introduce the box of bones

Subtracting through songs.

Week beginning 20th May

It has been a great last week of term. Sport's day events went well with the children really enjoying themselves and talking about it days after. These events can be tough for children when they see their parents or just lots of adults looking at them, Thank you to all parents/carers who came to watch and cheered them all, there was a great atmosphere and it really helped.

The children have enjoyed exploring zero and have been fascinated thinking about all the numbers it can be in. We had one child talk about 1000 and even try to guess how many zeros this would have.

We have introduced an alphabet song to the children to support them with the letter name recognition. They really seem to like the song and it has been on every day by request. If you want to use it at home here is the link. As it is american we just say z correctly over the top.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWvBAQf7v8g

We have been exploring our bodies and the children have been interested in what we find inside our bodies. We also compared our bodies with sharks as they are very interested in them currently. We learnt that they do not have skeletons.

Next term we will focus on

introducing number 1 - explore making marks for one and ensure understanding and number recognition.

continue with segmenting and blending and introduce the sound "s" using jolly phonics.

Continue with looking at skeletons of us and other animals - how are the different. Introduce bones for them to explore.

Week beginning 13th May

We have explored the school field this week whilst practicing for sport's day. The children found it more challenging doing the races in such an open space so we will practicing again at the beginning of next week to support them using their listening ears outside.

Rolling has been our spark this week with many of the children curious about how things roll. We looked at different objects that roll, height you roll from and how we can make them roll faster. We will continue on this next week.

Preparation for going to reception class is starting which is why we are encouraging children to leave toys at home. Toys can go missing or get broken at school which is why we discourage them. Toys in bags seem to end up coming out of the bag so the safest place is home.

We are segmenting words and listening for sounds in words, we have also begun to explore what are the letters names which we will continue.

Next week are focus will be;

Number of the week - returning to 0. The importance of this number and what other numbers can we find it in.

Continue with segmenting words and listening for sounds.

Exploring our bodies - how do they work and what is in our body. If you have any baby pictures you can send in for me to copy that would be really helpful as we will also look at how are bodies change.

comparing groups and introducing mathematical language and maybe symbols of add and subtract.

Week beginning 6th May

It's been a short week this week but a busy one. We will be spending a lot of the summer term consolidating the children's learning by repeating activities and themes to ensure they truly have a good understanding.

We have explored weight this week and the children have been very curious in experimenting with the balance scales. We have introduced the language heavy, heaviest and light and lighter and they have begun ordering depending on weight.

Responsibility has been a big focus this week with us needing to revisit how to be responsible and what this word means.

next week we will focus on;

we will explore number 15.

sequencing- ordering events and times of day.

continue sports day practice.

continue with oral blending.

Week beginning 29th April

Supertato to the rescue! We have followed the children's interest in superheroes this week and shared the Supertato story. The children went on to make their own vegetable superheroes and role played their own stories of Supertato. The children showed skill in using scissors when making the capes. We made our own super juice and looked at what food would be healthy and good to put in our drink. Ginger smells like lemons!!

We have been exploring pattern and making our own patterns. We have also continued to look at sounds and segmenting words.

Well done the children who have bought their reading log in for a star to be added to their certificate. We would expect most children to be at 10 by now. We have 82 days until the summer holidays so plenty of time to achieve this.

Mrs Clarke and Mrs Stacey went on some very informative training on Thursday so we may make some small tweaks as they are feeling inspired.

Next week we will focus on;

- Number of the week 14

- continue with segmenting and initial letter sounds.

- design our own outfits - following spark.

- compare weight

Week beginning 22nd April

Welcome back, we hope you all enjoyed your Easter break. We have enjoyed hearing about them and the egg hunts the children took part in. The reading challenge is well underway and the children seem to have enjoyed sharing books. Some children have achieved their first reward of a star added to their certificate and their face added to our bookworm. If you have reached a milestone in your reading log please put the log in our orange box by the parent board, then we can celebrate with your child.

This week we introduced reading dice and story spoons to the writing area, we have had some fantastic stories which we have been scribing for them so they can be retold in Meadow class and at home. It has facilitated discussions about how stories are structured and that they need a beginning a middle and an end.

Maths we have revisited matching numeral and quantity in various different ways. The numbered cars were a big interest this week.

Superheroes are a running theme and spark of interest so we will follow this up next week with introducing the story Supertato.

Next week our focus will be;

Number of the week 13. Counting in different ways. How can we make 13?

Exploring Supertato and what it takes to be a superhero.

Being healthy - how do we get vegetables, growth and time scales.

Sports day practice

Sound talk

Week beginning 1st April

It's been an interesting week with so many different sparks in our learning. The children have continued to be interested in putting on shows, we challenged them to number the chairs and make tickets for their show. Everyone wanted to sit on number 11 as it is number of the week. The children were very interested in the tickets so we continued to explore tickets and looked at the different tickets you can get.

We introduced a puppet theatre this week which the children chose to use as a café, we explored cutting and squeezing real fruit, the children showed great imagination skills and were very resourceful in using props to enhance their play.

We have continued to explore segmenting and the children are showing awareness of some sounds. The book challenge seems to be off to a good start. can we please remind you this is not a race and more about quality reading and time with your children. repetition is key with young children to promote understanding and love of books. If they want to hear the same story a few nights this is fine and hopefully they will be telling you the story.

Please check the newsletter for information ready for Term 5. We hope you all have a lovely Easter Break and look forward to hearing all about on their return.

Next term we will be focusing on;

Introduce our number of the week, number 12.

We will explore subitising and number recognition more within our continuous provision.

How to be a good friend and solve conflict.

Going to school - we will touch on this as children will have found out the school they will be attending.

Week beginning 25th March

What a lovely week, the sunshine makes such as difference. The children showed how much they have grown in confidence and self esteem this week by performing their Easter egg hunt story for parents and carers. We hope you had as much fun as we did, the staff are extremely proud of the children's journey and where they have come so far.

Children have missed the caterpillars this week, but as they are forming their chrysalis they are so fragile we wanted to put them in safe space. We will introduce them next week and wait patiently to see if any made the journey to a butterfly.

The children have been learning the stories of Easter and the real meaning behind it. So far we have explored Palm Sunday, the last supper, Jesus on the cross and Easter Sunday. We will continue this next week.

The estimation station encouraged lots of maths language and comparing. We counted to some very high numbers and we also had some very big estimations. The chocolate eggs may have helped to encourage this but it has been great fun. Maths can be fun.

Some Year 5 children came to share their robotics project with us, the children were so curious as to how it moved and chased it round the garden. They had great ideas about making a course for it to travel through and trying to get it to go through each others legs. Thanks to the Year 5 students who shared this with us.

Next week we will focus on;

Easter story and making Easter biscuits

Counting out larger numbers from a large amount of items

We will continue with segmenting.

Looking at a healthy diet and exercise with Jigsaw Jeanie.

Week beginning 18th March

The signs of spring are starting to show, this is an exciting time of year where we can see new life begin. The children have been keen to explore natures mini beasts outside and have made a wormery this week. We continue to watch with anticipation as the caterpillars get bigger and spend a lot of time hanging from the lid of our caterpillar pot.

Someone visited the classroom this week and left us hidden messages. The children had lots ideas of who could of visited us, with The Gruffalo being the most popular choice. Children investigated in the I pad animal footprints and some tried to draw their own.

The children have been comparing and trying to find the same amount , we also explored the concepts of most and least for those children who are secure in talking about the same amount. Next week our Easter events are on Wednesday and Thursday and invites have gone out. If your child has been invited to a session they do not normally attend please come at the time on the invitation. A parent pay message has also gone out to all parents, just to clarify we are trying to gauge interest before we book as any children who do not attend we will have to pay the cost and as budgets are tight we want to check children will attend before committing to the booking. Please can you talk to Mrs Clarke if your child will not be able to attend the production.

Next week we will focus on;

Easter - The stories around Easter, understanding the real meaning of Easter.

Introduce Number of the week- Number 10.

Continue with segmenting words and listening for beats in words.

continue with comparing and estimating.

Week beginning 11th March

Our caterpillar journey has been so exciting to watch, they have grown lots over the last week and we are eagerly waiting for them to make their chrysalis. It has been a great learning curve, along with our plants for the children to understand that not all journeys in life are quick.

They have set rules on how to best care for the caterpillars and all the children have followed these.

We have explored the number 8 this week and looked at how we can make eight. We found one more and one less than eight and experimented making towers of 8 blocks tall. This supported our sequencing maths topic of tallest, shortest and ordering by height. We continued to make Giant me's and talk about who was tallest.

Children have explored my basket of treasures this week and we have sounded out objects for them to find such as, C-A-T / H-A-T / P-I-G. The children picked this up very quickly and enjoyed sounding out the words.

Virtual reality has been used this week to support the children's role play when interested in flying a plane, riding a train and going on a roller coaster.

Building as has been a common spark for the children using various construction materials to make planes, trains, carriages, towers, train tracks, jail and much, much more. We even got to watch Mr Steel and some dads build our builder's den outside. A big thank you to our helpers and Mr Steel. Next week we will focus on;

comparing groups to find the same, more or less

Continue to sound out words in different games.

We will begin exploring Easter and the stories behind Easter, along with our Easter egg hunt story.

How can we be healthy and look after our bodies.

Week beginning 4th March

It's been a busy week with lots going on, it started with exploring Pancake day. We looked at the meaning of pancake day and the meaning of lent. World Book day was great fun, the children looked fantastic and it was great to explore why they had chosen their characters. We explored so many different books in a variety of ways.

In maths this week we have begun exploring size and comparing tallest and shortest, some of us made giant me's and we have begun looking at which is the tallest. When you are out and about or even at home introduce words such as tall and short.

We have continued to explore beats and keeping a steady bet when singing. These skills are so important for early phonics understanding and reading skills.

This weeks school newsletter has introduced our Book worm challenge for term 5 and 6. There will be more information on this and our Easter events next week.

Next week we will be focusing on;

Introducing number of the week, number 8. How do we represent 8? Explore the Octopus with 8 legs.

It's science week so we will be exploring the journey of our caterpillars and watching them grow. we learn how to care for them and the journey they go on to become a butterfly.

It we will begin to listen to how words sound in our phonics awareness groups

Week beginning 25th February

It sounds like the children had a very busy and fun half term week, we have enjoyed listening to them share their half term news.

This week we have been collecting data on a range of questions and representing numerals in many different ways. We have explored what type of toppings we want for our pancakes next week and made a shopping list for Mrs Clarke.

We have explored planting this week and some of us chose to plant some vegetable seeds. We will be caring for them over the coming months to see if we can successful grow some vegetables.

We are slowly introducing some new equipment and resources and supporting the children to show respect and care for our resources. If they do bring home any of these new exciting equipment can we please ask for your support in helping the children to return them so they can learn the importance of caring and showing respect. Don't forget world book day on Thursday 7th March, join us in dressing up and bringing in your favourite story.

Next week we will focus on;

Introducing our number of the week, number 7. How do we make seven, what does it come before and after.

We will be looking at ordering height and size in many different ways.

We will look at different stories and how stories are structured. Maybe make our own stories.

We will be exploring pancake day and putting our data to use in what toppings we will use for our toppings.

Week beginning 11th February

We have spread the love this week. We have talked about love in it's many forms through stories and exploring people who are special to us and what that means. We have explored our creative side by making cards, decorating bags and making woollen hanging hearts.

We continued to explore shape in then environment and used shape to help us create art masterpieces.

We revisited the jungle with Tom and Jess in Write Dance and practiced making circular and angular shapes with them, this is all early preparation for writing.

Lola has been helping us concentrate and listen through games this week and we have continued to clap and find the beat in music and our names.

We hope you all have a lovely half term break. Can we please remind parents that we do discourage toys coming to nursery as we can not be held responsible for them if they get lost or broken. If your child is having difficultly coming in they can keep hold of it for 5 minutes and then return it to you or their bag. If it is a comfort it can go in their bag or in Jigsaw Jeanie's basket.

After half term we will focus on;

Introduce number of the week, Number 6. Can we show 6 with our fingers?

Data collection and representing number/numerals.

rhythm and rhyme.

re-estabilishing class promise and expectations.

Friendship and relationships with Jigsaw Jeanie.

Week beginning 4th February

What fun we have had this week. We have been keen problem solvers using our skills of the Solveadyctyl to help us think things through and find ways to solve problems. A good example of this was during a group who were trying to build a house to hide from the Big Bad wolf. We talked to each other about how we could build this house and whilst building it we couldn't get the door frame to stay up. What could we use? Who could help? Many of the group offered solutions and we solved the problem by listening to each other.

We learnt about Chinese New Year and acted out the story of the animals racing through the water to have the year named after them. We made red money envelopes and reflected on when we celebrate special times with our families.

We have explored 2D and 3D shape this week and enjoyed our shape hunt game. We talked about how we could tell the difference between a square and a rectangle as this is tricky as they both have four sides. We have found shape in our environment, looking at every day objects.

Mixing, pouring and filling seems to be a strong spark in the children's learning this week We followed a recipe for witches brew and decided we wanted to see what would happen if we put it in the oven. We ended up with some, "crusty," "squidgy," "soft," cakes. We thought about how we could give them to the witch and decided that we were going to post them in a box. We found her address on the internet, she lives in Canada and have made stamps to send the box. We hope she likes the cakes.

We have explored rhythm and beat with stories and clapping our names.

Next week we will focus on;

Introducing number 5 as number of the week. Can you show me 5 on your hand?

We will continue with rhyme and rhythm through stories and music.

We will be exploring Valentines day through story and adult led activities.

We will continue to explore 2D and 3D shape.

Week beginning 28th January

We have enjoyed exploring the children's favourite stories and sharing traditional and popular stories. We found lots of stories that had our number of the week 3 in and enjoyed exploring the characters, especially the big bad wolf. The children had some good ideas about how he could be kind to the pigs.

We have also explored positional language with our story My cat likes to hide in boxes and also with We're going on a bear hunt.

Write Dance we explored circular movements, keep this up at home they can do this is a bubbly bath with their finger or just in the air. I know they are excited to see where we go in our adventure next week.

PE was a big success this week with most children saying it was their favourite learning this week. We explored an obstacle course and moving our body in different ways by crawling through a tunnel, balancing on a beam, jumping onto the vault and zig zagging through cones.

We are looking for donations of plastic bottles for a project we are looking to start before Easter.

Next week we will be focussing on;

introducing number 4 to the children. What does it look like and can we find it in the environment.

Exploring rhythm and rhyme in stories and music. Using our bodies to keep a rhythm such as clapping hands.

What is Chinese New Year? How is it celebrated?

Week beginning 21st January

Another busy week and the children have been very curious learners through their play. We have explored number 2 going on hunts around our environment trying to find as many number 2's as we can. We have been practicing number recognition through exploring padlocks and trying to match the numbered key to the numbered padlock.

Taking on roles in our play has been an interest for the children. We have had princesses, doctors, hairdressers, shopkeepers and singers/musicians. Some the children decided to put on a show with Mrs Clarke as the special guest to watch the show. We had singers, presenters, musicians, stage hands and stage designers. They called it "The Greatest show." We have also been acting out stories, which leads on well to next week being National storytelling week. We will be sharing traditional and popular stories, we encourage children to bring and share their favourite stories next week.

We have been exploring odd one out with sounds and getting the children to be a thinkodactyl and explain why sounds may be different and think about how we group sounds. We have begun to think about what sound our name may start with which the children would like to do more of, so we will continue with this.

Next week we will focus on;

introducing the number 3 and exploring 3 in the environment.

Introduce Talk for writing story supporting them to understand how we make a story.

Continue to work on our social skills and being a kind friend, through small group work and using Jigsaw Jeanie.

We will be exploring positional language in maths through interactive games in small groups and using stories.

Week beginning 14th January

Another busy week exploring and investigating. The children are very curious and have enjoyed the new resources introduced such as the rotary telephone, coded padlocks and the letter stamps. Number has been everywhere, we are exploring how to represent number using a range of methods such as making marks, lines, dots or attempting the number or using our fingers.

We went on a number hunt looking for the number 1. There were some tricky ones to find but we found them all by the end of the morning session. The afternoon hunt was much harder and we found the last number 1 today.

Exploring Ice and wondering how cold it needs to be to make Ice freeze has been on our minds. We have explored how to break the ice and enjoyed investigating how to get hidden treasures out of the Ice.

Write Dance was introduced this week, we ventured into the jungle with Tom and Jess and climbed the tree to escape the tiger. We listened to the jungle drums and made lines for trees. We also made it over to the school hall for PE. The children were real stickatops preserving with putting their shoes and socks on by themselves. Please practice this at home, we need to support the children to be independent in school readiness.

Next week our focus will be;

Introducing number of the week - Number 2

Continuing with number recognition and representing number

Write Dance sessions to support gross and fine motor skills in preparation for writing.

Looking at how we can be responsible with Jigsaw Jeanie.

Looking at sequencing and following instructions.

Week beginning 7th January

Welcome back to everyone and a special welcome to all our new children and their families. It has been a positive start to the year with the children returning and showing much more confidence. We have also seen some very kind friends this week when our new children have been settling. They have been really trying to involve the new children in their play and help them in their session especially if some were upset.

We would like to remind all our families that on this class page you can find the topic web and newsletter. This will help you see what we aim to achieve in the children's learning and it will also let you know any important dates that you need to know.

Can i please remind you all that if your child is starting Reception class in September you should of applied online on the North Somerset council website, www.n-somerset.org/admissions.

You have until midnight on Tuesday 15th January 2019.

If your child is staying with us in meadow class in September than application were due in today Friday 11th January.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Warner for all her support in Meadow Class, she has decided to focus her attention on the administration role for nursery and school. We would like to welcome Miss Watling who some of you will recognise from the last academic year, she will be supporting us every morning and will take over with Mrs Warner's key children. This was a very quick decision made at the end of last term so sorry we did not give more notice but she is settling well and building relationships with the children.

The children have reflected on our class promise that we made in September and supporting the new children to learn what we expect in Meadow Class. We will, "Be responsible, Be kind, Be good at listening and Be good at sharing."

We have been exploring mixing and making our own recipes, we had some very interesting pies with scrambled snake and owl ice cream. We have also been practicing our number recognition and we have been challenging the children to try and represent number, through lines, dots and any other ideas they may have.

Next week we will focus on;

- Continuing to explore boundaries and expectations to support new children in their transition

- How can we manage conflict in class, we will use Jigsaw Jeanie to explore possible ideas and solutions.

- Continue with number recognition using visual clues such as an Octopus for 8. We will explore why would we use an Octopus etc.

- We will begin write dance session to support the children in making movements on a large scale. This supports later on with correct letter formation.

- We will begin PE in the hall on Thursday mornings this term. We will be exploring working in groups and lining up and following instructions.

Week beginning 17th December

We made it to the end of term, we had very excited and tired children but they have enjoyed this very busy action packed week. Thank you so much for the lovely cards and gifts we hope you all have a lovely Christmas break.

We have had two Christmas parties, two Story and rhymes and enjoyed Messy Church were we made a Christingle and talked about the true meaning of Christmas. We also got to spend time with the reception classes whilst we took part in messy church and they taught us a new song about God which seems like a new favourite for us.

We have still been busy learning this week practicing our finger gym and listening with Lola. We have been exploring what shapes we can see in the environment and thinking about when we might see certain shapes.

In the New Year we will focus on;

How to be a good friend as we introduce new children to Meadow Class.

How can we stand up for ourselves and solve conflict.

We will start back at number 1 and do lots of work on number recognition.

We will begin write dance were we focus on making marks.

Week beginning 10th December

What a busy week we have had, we have been rehearsing The Big Sing for all our parents and carers, exploring the number 6 and learning what estimate means.

We have been practising trying to estimate how many of things we have which has proven to be very difficult as we just want to count them as we have become so good at counting.

We introduced ice this week which the children loved exploring and talking about how you get ice and the changes. They also wanted to explore how they could crack the ice into smaller pieces, which led us to investigate different ways we could achieve this, great problem solving.

The large wooden construction blocks were introduced this week and it supported the children's role play and imagination as well as their physical skills. We have had rockets zooming to the moon, airplanes and some very challenging obstacle courses.

don't forget it's parties and our Story and Rhyme time next week.

Next week we will focus on;

Listening and attention skills through bucket time and Listening Lola.

We will continue to explore 2D shape and find them in our environment.

We will explore the nativity story and why we celebrate Christmas.

Week beginning 3rd December

The weeks are flying by and the children are getting very excited for Christmas. We have been designing our own Christmas cards this week and the children have been interested in filling boxes and wrapping them for Christmas. We have been sharing about how we have been getting ready for Christmas. Buddy the Elf came this week to introduce number of the week and set us some challenges unfortunately someone took his hat off and the magic has been lost so he has gone back to Santa. We have been encouraging the children how to be responsible and maybe Santa will let him come back.

Dear Santa is our Story and Rhyme and we have enjoyed learning the story and actions. I will post this on tapestry so they can practice at home. We will be performing this for parents on Wednesday 19th December at 2.40pm and Thursday 20th December at 11.15am.

We have been looking for shapes in our environment and talking about the shapes of everyday objects. Lola the listening Leopard has helped us listen to different sounds and voices to see if we can talk about the differences. Write Dance was introduced this week, we explored moving our fingers to music and making our fingers dance on our friends back, this was very tickly.

Next week we will be focusing on:

Introducing our number of the week, number 6.

We will try estimating how many we think we have in a group. We will be estimating when looking at dice and dominoes and talking about groups we can see.

We will be practicing our listening and attention skills with Lola and we will be exploring Bucket time.

We will revisit how we can be responsible and what behaviour for learning looks like.

Week beginning 26th November

We have been on a bear hunt this week in many different ways. This book has really captured the children's imagination and they have been telling the story in their own ways. We have explored it with footprints, in the tuff tray and with a bare foot trail. I'm sure many came home with dirty feet but so much learning and fun was had during these sessions.

The children have enjoyed exploring number 4. we looked at what it looks like and how it looks on a dice in dot formation. Some children told us they were 4 and some are going to be four soon. We have listened to songs about 4. We have been counting to four and we found two shape with four sides and talked about how these were different and why. Keep looking for number 4 in the environment around you.

We have looked at roles and real superheroes with doctors and nurses being a keen interest in role play. We spoke about when you may need them with the children sharing their interesting ideas.

We have been challenged this week by trying to recognise voices of our friends. Lola has been helping us with this game so we can listen well. We will continue this next week.

Next week we will focus on;

Introducing number 5 as our number of the week.

We will be going on a shape hunt, what will we find??

We will explore our story and rhyme story Dear Santa. If we get really good at this we would like to perform this for parents on the last week of term.

We will continue to practice distinguishing between sound.

Week beginning 19th November

We have lots of different interests this week. The children have shown an interest in exploring different roles. We have been fire fighters putting out fires with our hoses. We have also had brides, doctors and a big interest around cafes and restaurants and serving us some delicious food.

We have explored the number 3 and many the children knew they were three and could recognise the number. We have been hunting what can we find three of? Why not continue this at home and see what do you have three of and looking at the number three. We have also been exploring using a dice for games. We have been looking at group of dots on the dice and what number could this be.

We introduced distinguishing different sounds using fun games with Listening Lola. We will continue this and it supports early phonics awareness.

We trialled PE in the school hall this week as this is a big step for the children walking over to school and being able to take their shoes and socks off and on independently. The children did so well and most of them really enjoyed the experience. We practiced playing games in small groups that involved lining up and going to the back of the line.

We will start PE in the hall once a week from January and we will alternate the day every term so every child gets the experience. We will begin with Thursday mornings from 14th January.

Next week we will focus on:

Introducing our number of the week, 4. What can we find that has 4? Looking at animals with 4 legs and listening to the number blocks song about 4.

We will continue introducing different sounds and instruments and distinguishing the different sounds we can hear.

We will continue introducing different roles/jobs for the children to explore through role play.

Week beginning 12th November

We would like to thank parents who have bought in family photos. Can we please ask parents to try and bring photos in this week so we can begin our family photo album with the children.

It's been a Super week. The children have really wanted to explore the role of Superheroes and thinking about what they need to be a Superhero. We have thought about the super powers and what we use these for and what they wear. Many children have been interested in making masks and capes. We will continue with this next week. We will also explore other Superheroes that may not wear capes such as Doctors, Nurses, Police and Fire fighters. It's important for children to know about these real heroes and that they are here to help and protect us and not someone to be scared of or who only come if you are bad.

We have been counting everything this week and exploring our number of the week, number 2. We have found lots of things that we have two of on our bodies.

We have started trying to distinguish different sounds to support with phonics awareness. We have been listening to different voices and sounds to see if we can tell who is speaking or what sound is the odd one out.

Next week we will focus on;

Our number of the week is 3. How any of us know we are 3? Can we recognise the number 3?

We will continue to explore distinguishing sounds and finding the odd one out.

We will look at the real Superheroes.

We will also explore recognising that dots on a dice can represent a number.

Week beginning 5th November

Children have come back refreshed after their break with lots to share with us. Sounds like an exciting week off for all. Thank you to all the parents who attended our workshop this week. We hope you found it useful. Anyone who was unable to make it but is interested I have added the power point to the class page under useful websites and information. I will produce a handout on the class page of useful phrases to support your child at home, following on from our discussion in the workshop on building child's growth mindset.

This week we have been exploring friendship and how to be a good friend. We have used Jigsaw Jeanie to help us in our learning journey and read her the story, "Hands are not for hitting."

We have introduced the story of Diwali to the children which they have chosen to retell within class and used masks to support this story telling. If you would like to understand the story of Diwali you can watch it with your children, just search for Cbeebies Diwali story. (It is only 2 minutes long.)

The children seem interested in hide and seek so we have explored this in many ways with them. Hiding items for them to find, creating dens and interesting areas where they may like to hide and playing hide and seek in a different way where we need to use our listening ears to find our friends.

We have been exploring counting in sequence 1-5 and counting objects 1:1. We have also introduced our number of the week which was number 1.

Can we ask that children bring in a family photo that we can photocopy as we are going to make a family album.

Next week we will focus on;

We will continue to count in sequence and counting objects 1:1 but up to 10.

We will also look at subtraction in songs such as 5 little speckled frogs.

We will look at who we are and our families.

Week beginning 22nd October

We have some very tired children who have coped so well with a very busy term, exploring a new environment, routine and relationships.

We have continued to explore our good friendship recipe this week and thinking about what we need to be a good friend. Supporting the children to follow through their ideas and reinforce our class promise we have introduced the Rainbow of happiness. When children demonstrate traits of our class promise we put their picture on the rainbow. Look out for the Rainbow at the end of the sessions to see who has made it on there today.

We have started work on our bug hotel and we have a guest already though it is not a bug guest. The wild rabbit seems to have taken a shine to our structure, the children have been talking about how to be kind to the rabbit and look after it.

We have had visitors this week with Luna the dog coming to see us and Reverend Nick Moxon visited the children today and sang some songs. We will be inviting him next term to sing with the children.

We have been exploring counting up to 5 in many different ways this week through drawing round our hands and counting our fingers, sorting objects, number rhymes and sending rockets up in the air. Children have been interested in how we send the rockets up.

After half term we will be focusing on;

How things go up and come down

Supporting children to make marks using different tools

counting and recognising numbers

Week beginning 15th October

Our fascination with Captain Jack and the treasure has led us onto making our own boat and thinking of what we need on our boat. We had many great ideas such as, a steering wheel to help us get to him, an anchor to stop us, a telescope to see him, guns to shoot the bad guys, canons also to shoot the bad guys and many more ideas. Our boat was not big enough for us all to explore together so it gave us a good opportunity to problem solve. We had to think about a safe number of children in the boat and also work out how we can share our time in the boat. These are valuable skills to support the children on their journey through life.

We have been thinking about what type of achievosaurs we have seen at Nursery with a focus on the stickatops achievosaur as he sticks at a task and perseveres.

We have continued to explore shape and counting through fun games and singing. We also counted the treasure we found to see if we could sort it into groups.

We have begun to build a bug hotel. Look at the photos on our gallery. If you have any roof tiles, plastic plant pots or would like to collect moss, leaves etc we would appreciate any donations.

Next week we will focus on:

What does being a good friend look like?

What makes us different and the same?

Continue exploring listening with Lola

Continue to explore counting through number rhymes.

Week beginning 8th Oct

What a busy week we have had in Meadow Class. I'm sure you can tell as we have been sending home some very tired children. The children have been interested in hiding and wrapping objects and found a treasure chest full of gold this week. They also received a message in a bottle from Captain Jack. The children wanted to help Captain Jack find his treasure have been trying to think were it could be, how they could find it and how they could get a message to him once they had found it.

They have been making telescopes to help them look for the "X, marks the spot." They have explored making treasures maps and letters for Captain Jack. We will continue this adventure next week to see where it may take us.

We have also been exploring shape in many different ways by wrapping them and following the shape lines to support recognising shapes. We have also been exploring counting objects in many different ways following the children's interests.

Next week we will focus on;

continuing to explore shape through different techniques and games.

continuing to explore counting and numbers up to 10.

Exploring our adventures with Captain Jack and exploring making our marks by sending a message back in his bottle.

Week Beginning 1st October

Another busy week with the children interested in how to build structures. We have explored different types of media to support us in out structures, using boxes, pipes, crates, wood, tyres, masking tape and anything else we could find. We have built pirate ships, petrol stations, planes and helicopters to name a few. This has got the children thinking, creating plans, working together as a team, negotiating and experimenting and predicting.

We have also been thinking about how to be a good friend, we have created a good friend recipe and also made our class promise so look out for our class promise bee. He can remind us of the promises we made in Meadow Class.

Next week we will be looking at ;

extending the building interest and exploring how to create a plan of what we want to build. We will also introduce new materials.

We will be introducing activities were children can explore counting up to 10 and seeing if we can recognise numbers on a dice, when number is represented by a dot.

Week beginning 24th September

It has been a fun filled week with lots going on and lots of exploring the environment. Some children have been a little unsettled but this is normal around this time as the novelty is wearing off and realisation is setting in for them. It can distressing for parents to see their children like this but the team have been great and have managed to settle all children within a few minutes of their parents leaving.

The children love being outside and lots of exciting learning opportunities have happened outside this week. The children were interested in the water falling through our large marble run structure. This led to the children thinking about what else falls and why some things fall faster than others. They investigated many objects and were able to work out that if it was heavy it would fall faster. The children then wanted to experiment with paper airplanes to see if they could make them fly or if they would fall. They had great fun making them and decided to have races with the planes, guessing how far they would go before they fell.

We have also been working with Lola this week on how to be a good listener and what skills we need. We have been listening to different sounds in our environment and thinking about our favourite sounds.

Next week we will focus on;

Focus children will start next week so if you have had a letter for your child, please can you return your slip.

We will continue to explore how to be a good listener and what skills we need with Lola.

Following on from our interest with how far we can get the airplanes we will explore measuring and investigate language used when measuring such as long, big, wide, high etc.

We will investigate what makes a good friend and how can we be a good friend when we are in Meadow class.

A video will be uploaded on to the photo gallery and tapestry of our airplane race.

Week beginning 10th September 2018

What a fantastic start to our new academic year. This week the children in Meadow Class have begun by attending some settling sessions and are now attending their usual sessions, building up to being in full time.

We have met our class friend 'Lola the listening Leopard' and have been learning how to be good listeners. We have also been exploring all of the areas of our classroom and how to use them. The children are doing really well and we are so pleased to see so many happy children.

Please head over to the Photo Gallery to see pictures of us settling in and exploring Trinity. We will also be loading photos of the children settling on to their tapestry account so please make sure you have activated your link.

Week beginning 17th September

It has been a great week with most children starting their full sessions and some of our new friends still settling. We have been exploring the wind and how things move in the wind. We made kites with paper, carrier bags and string. This was a great activity where we could talk about how high they could go and notice changes in the wind.

We have been practicing how to be a good listener and our friend Lola the listening Leopard has been helping us. We have also been learning some number songs and counting up and down 1 to 5. Many of the children have been practising their independence skills and how they can do things for themselves. Keep up the practice at home.

Vision

Together we inspire, through our Christian values, unique individuals who believe they can achieve more than they ever thought possible in mind, body and spirit. Through nurture and challenge, we provide a firm foundation to enable all to thrive, to lead and serve in their life long journey as local, national and global citizens.